No. 1 E-10 Area Team... 2009 Marshall squad

Marshall's James Wimberly takes out Three River's Quarterback Arron Spence during the MHSAA Div. 4 final game at Ford Field.

You go to the Friday night football game at your home field and you see some of your old high school football teammates. And then, maybe you see a couple of guys from a few years before, or a few years after.And then the talk begins.

Which class had the best football team?

Who had the best season?

That's what we are here to figure out - the All-Time No. 1 team in the E-10 era for Battle Creek area schools (big school division).

We have had the E-10 rankings at the Enquirer for 15 years now. The E-10 is a weekly ranking we do on our Prep Gameday page at the Enquirer, listing the top 10 high school football teams each week, regardless of class.

To mark the '15-year anniversary' we are going to have special All-Time E-10 rankings throughout the football season. Each week, we will rank the top 10 football teams over the past 15 years for the city and local teams in the Enquirer coverage area.

The era we are talking about is 1997 up to last season - 2011. A small sample size - but we do this for two reasons. That's basically how long I have been here, so I can back up these All-Time rankings. And it goes with our theme of 15 years of E-10.

This week we are tackling the teams from the area schools (non city) from the Battle Creek Enquirer coverage area in what we are calling the big school division - enrollment of 400 or more.

Top Team

There have been several big-school area teams in the Enquirer coverage area that have made nice, long playoff runs during the E-10 era, but only one went to the championship game and came away a winner - the 2009 Marshall team.

So, despite some heavy competition, the 2009 Marshall team is our No. 1 team in the E-10 era for area schools with an enrollment of over 400.

Heavily dependent on the running game, Marshall ran all the way to the state title and beat Three Rivers, 49-28, at Ford Field.

It would be the final Marshall team for longtime coach Rich Hulkow, who would step down after the season. And it turned out to be his second state championship - after Marshall won the title in 1996 (just outside our E-10 ranking parameters) and was runner-up in 1997 (which will hear from later in this poll).

Record-breaking back Jamar Wimberly played big all season and finished as an All-Stater and had 228 yards on 32 carries and three touchdowns in the state championship game. But there was plenty of carries for the other big part of the Marshall backfield, late that season, as Garrett Woods had 195 yards on 22 carries and three touchdowns in that high-scoring final game.

Marshall was 8-1 in the regular season that year, but really hit its stride and became worthy of our No. 1 spot with the way the Redhawks played in the postseason. An impressive 50-7 win over perennial power Detroit Country Day in the third round of the playoffs showed Marshall was for real that season. Marshall backed that up with an unheard of blowout win in the state semifinals, beating Marine City, 47-16, before the one-sided win in the state finals.

Close Call

Marshall will have several spots in this All-Time area school rankings, including the top two positions. The 1997 team, which also went to the state finals, is just one notch below the 2009 No. 1-ranked squad.

Coming in at No. 2 might be hard to take for the 1997 team, because several of those players were state champs themselves the year before in 1996 (again, just outside our E-10 rankings). Loaded again in 1997, Marshall opened the season with an impressive win over Jackson Lumen Christi and then rolled to an undefeated regular season behind future Michigan State University quarterback Ryan Van Dyke.

This Marshall team played some tighter games in the playoffs and only needed three postseason victories to advance to the state finals in an era of fewer playoff teams and ended at 12-1. A tight first-round 26-21 victory over Fowlerville put Marshall on the playoff road, but the quest for back-to-back state championships ended in the Class BB final, falling to West Branch Ogemaw Heights, 19-12.

Two other state finalist teams also find themselves in the 'close call' category.

Coming in at No. 3 in our rankings is the 2010 Olivet squad, under Dean Peters, that advanced to Ford Field to play in the Division 5 state championship game. These Eagles played in a ultra-tough Kalamazoo Valley Association and suffered two losses in the regular season. But once Olivet found itself in the postseason the Eagles started to fly and finished 11-3 overall with four playoff wins before falling in the state finals to Grand Rapids West Catholic, 42-26.

The final state finalist among big school area teams in the E-10 era is Maple Valley, which went 12-1 in 1997 and comes in at No. 4 in our rankings. In the first year of the E-10 rankings, Maple Valley went undefeated in the Southern Michigan Athletic Association with a memorable 12-6 win over rival Olivet to hand the Eagles their only loss that year.

Maple Valley, under longtime coach Guenther Mittelstaedt, played some tight games in the postseason as the Lions were a defensive-minded team that only allowed a total of 72 points that season in 13 games. That was also the case in the Class CC state final game as Maple Valley lost to Muskegon Oakridge, 6-0.

Best of the Rest

Marshall pops up again in the rankings at No. 5 as the 2001 Redhawks get in the top half of the rankings with an 11-2 team that advanced to the state semifinals and lost a heartbreaker to Orchard Lake St. Mary's, 12-6. That 2001 squad had to beat rival Harper Creek twice that year, once in the regular season and then in a dramatic 7-6 win in the second round of the playoffs.

Coming in at No. 6 is some more Redhawks as the 2008 Marshall team went 8-4 and advanced to the third round of the playoffs. This Marshall team, that would include several of the players that would eventually play on our No. 1-ranked 2009 team, had a memorable 20-19 win over Pennfield to get out of the first round of the playoffs.

The 2006 Olivet team went 9-3 and advanced to the third round of the playoffs and comes in at No. 7 in our poll. That Eagles team lost two late games in the regular season, but rebounded with two defensive battles in the playoffs to win in the first two rounds of the postseason.

The 2003 Maple Valley team went 9-3, but comes in at No. 8 in our poll over some other squads, because it advanced to the third round of the playoffs before falling to perennial power Monroe St. Mary Catholic.

Gull Lake jumps in the rankings for the first time at No. 9 with a 1997 team that went undefeated in the regular season, but lost in the first round.

The final spot goes to the 1999 Maple Valley team that went undefeated in the regular season and went 10-1 overall and earns this spot over some other 10-1 teams based on the Lions beating their main rivals Olivet, not once, but twice in the same season, including in the playoffs.

Fan Vote

The fans agree with our E-10 rankings as the 2009 Marshall team finished first in the online poll with the 1997 Marshall team coming in second.

Next Week

Next up for the All-Time E-10 poll is Area Teams (Small Schools). These will be schools in the Enquirer coverage area that currently have an enrollment under 400 students. Get online and vote for which squad over the E-10 era is the best of the bunch.

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No. 1 E-10 Area Team... 2009 Marshall squad

You go to the Friday night football game at your home field and you see some of your old high school football teammates. And then, maybe you see a couple of guys from a few years before, or a few